Friday, July 3rd - Bukhara to Samarkand

This might be a short blog as this wasn't one of my finest days.  I slept until about 3 a.m. and then spent a lot of time in the bathroom.  I think it was about 6 when I got back to bed and tried to get a little sleep.  I didn't go down for breakfast but Gillian did bring me a piece of toast, a cookie and a few pieces of watermelon so I at least had something to eat.

We left at 8:30 for a 268 km, 5 hour drive to Samarkand and I immediately put on my wrist bands that are to prevent motion sickness and I took a gravol.  Another gravol at noon and I managed to survive the drive.  Three or four of us are currently sick so we're quite sure it was something we ate but we haven't figured out exactly what.  After we got to our hotel, the first with a swimming pool that we were planning to enjoy in this hot weather, several of us just went to sleep instead.  A cup of tea and some crackers was the lunch menu for me and dinner was some bread - but I'm not complaining as it seems to be working.  

Okay, enough of that.  Today we drove from Bukhara to Samarkand with a few stops along the way.  The first was still in Bukhara to see another madrasa or school. This one was in a long wide yard with trees around it.  The dome shaped entrance has four high minarets each ornately designed and different from the other three.  The tale is that the builder had four daughters and they kept asking which one was his favourite so he built four different and unique minarets to show them they were all beautiful in their own way.  In fact, the man travelled to India and the four-minaret idea is really a copy of a similar one in Hyderabad.  The rounded tops of the minarets are blue tile and the section just below is decorated with some blue but the rest of the structure is just pale beige brick.  Some of the minarets were damaged in an earthquake so they have been repaired but some of them are still the original.  Around the outside of the complex were the classrooms or study rooms, all much lower but each with a domed ceiling.  There were no dorms or second floor as it was built for the local community, and it actually looked like a very nice school setting.

Our drive is hard to describe.  We started on a large divided four lane highway.  Aside from the fact that some of the drivers were crazy and cutting in and out of traffic and creating chaos at times, this was a pretty smooth ride.  Later on we got onto a slightly smaller asphalt road - not really something you want in heat like these people have.  It was incredibly rutted and bumpy and definitely not a smooth ride.  Just to make it even more exciting, there was a lot of construction because they are trying to make redo this road (still in asphalt though!) so we were doing a lot of detours and switching from two-lane divided to just two lanes with traffic in both directions.  The driver was doing his best but it was a rather rough road and something those of us who weren't feeling well didn't really appreciate.  We only had to make a couple of emergency stops so that was good.

Turning left in many places involves actually turning right and then driving about a km past the intersection and then making a u-turn at the designated locations.  I've seen this before but it still seems strange.  However, it does seem to work if everyone knows what they are doing.  The road between Bukhara and Samarkand was called the Golden Road to Samarkand, and our guide had us reading a poem by the same name by James Elroy Flecker, an Englishman.    

For a while the surroundings were very green and we had cotton, corn, hay and wheat in the fields.  Along the side of the road they were selling watermelons and honey dew melons.  Small villages are all along the route.  Some we go through directly and some are off to the left or right.  The homes and building are only 1 to 2 storey brick and I believe our guide told us that in some places you could not build higher than 3 storeys but I can't remember why.  Earthquakes perhaps.

About an hour out of Bukhara we hit dry land again and not much was growing and definitely no crops.  But by the time I could write that fact down we were back into green again so I guess it was just an area with no irrigation available.  Shepherds had their sheep and goats grazing along the side of the road between the highway and the fields.  Cows and donkeys were tethered along the way usually in a shady place.  Donkeys and carts sometimes appeared along the side of the highway and someone in the van would call a "donkey alert" and hope somebody could get a picture.  They are about the only things on the highway that we wouldn't see on any highway back home.

Our second stop was at a Caravan Serai or caravan stop along the Silk Road.  We went first to a low domed building and discovered that this was the well and it was covered to protect the water source.  It was pretty full of water when we were there even though the well is just in the middle of it so I guess the water level is pretty high right now.  The sign said it was a 14th century Sardoba.  We then went across the highway to the serai iitself.  The ornately deocrated entrance gate and some of the front walls are still standing but inside it is just the foundations for the various buildings.  The sign here saidd 11th century Karvon Saray Raboti Malik with the latter part being the builder and operators name.  Merchants would be in the centre to sell their wares to the people on the caravans and the travellers would get accommodation, protection, water, food and the supplies needed to continue on their trip.  This particular spot proved that the Silk Road did indeed follow a route from Bukhara to Samarkan, something which was obviously disputed at some point.  The caravan serai were sort of like full-service hotels and they are quite impressive when you consider they operated ten centuries ago.

We stopped at a tea house for lunch, which most of us didn't eat and the others had samosas.  The tea tasted good though.  We sat outside on big sofas with our feet under a low table just to pretend we were like the locals.  It didn't really work.  They sort of lounged on the cushions and got comfortable.  We tried to sit and it was just awkward.

Along the way we passed a school zone and there were fake cardboard school patrol guards in the middle of the highway.  These sort of matched the fake cardboard police cars we see every so often along the side of the road.  They look pretty funny but I guess if they do the trick that's all that counts.

Each time we passed a canal there were boys swimming.  Some females were around but they appeared to be working doing laundry instead of just swimming.  It's another 40 + day so a swim would feel good.

Samarkand was founded 2,750 years ago at the same time that Rome was built - around the 7th century BC.  The age of Samarkand was just proven by archeologists to be this old.  Originally it was thought to be a more recent city.  The current population is 3 million people.

We made one stop in the city before heading to our hotel and this was at the mausoleum of Amir Temur (1336-1405).  Temur or Timur, depending on which sign you go by, was a 14th century conqueror who hoped to rebuild the empire of Genghis Kan and he was considered the last of the great conquerors from Eurasia.  He travelled and conquered from Istanbul to Delhi and many other ports I can no longer remember.  There are other people buried here as well including Temur's teacher, his sons and others.  The complex is incredibly beautiful.  The tomb itself is inside a high domed room which is ornately decorated in blue and gold in bas relief so it seems deeply textured.  There are two high minarets outside, also beautifully decorated.  The entrance archway to the property is also decorated in blue tiles and painting so the whole complex is quite amazing.  

When we got to our hotel I slept for a while then showered and did some laundry and blogging.  I didn't join the others at the pool or for dinner as I thought rest was more important.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be up to walking all over this great city in the heat.